Stamford's Law Enforcement & Mental Health Initiative

The project will enhance our Community Response Initiative (CRI) to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illness (MI) or co-occurring mental health illness and substance abuse (CMISA) that comes in contact with the the criminal justice system. The primary activities will be; to hire additional Master of Social Workers (MSW) from our mental health partner, the Recovery Network of Program (RNP) to embed in the Police Department, to, when safe and appropriate, respond to calls for service with the Police Behavioral Unit (BHU), to conduct mental health assessments, coordinate care, referrals and assertive linkage for Emotionally Disturbed Persons (EDP). Other activities include; conducting a systems-wide needs assessment to identify service gaps, assigning a Project Manager to manage the CRI, enhancing training for all relevant staff, conducting an extensive outreach campaign to engage a host of cross sector service providers, conducting Mental Health Fairs, and employing a robust social media campaign and a progressive training regimen, as well as working with BJA Technical Assistance. The Service area is the City of Stamford, Connecticut, whose residents will benefit from the proposed project.

Our project will address the program-specific priority area of promoting effective strategies by law enforcement to identify and reduce the risk of harm to individuals with MI or CMISA and to public safety
Lead Applicant; The City of Stamford (Police Department)
Partner Applicant; The Recovery Network of Programs, Inc. (RNP)
Target Population: The residents of the City of Stamford, with an emphasis on juveniles and marginalized communities in our city
Proposed Number of Individuals Served; We anticipate serving thousands of individuals in the city over the duration of the three-year grant period
Population/Demographics; Data derived from US Census Data as of 7/1/2019- population 129,638. Demographics: White (Non-Hispanic 49.3%, Hispanic 27.2%, Black or African-American 14.1%, Asian 8.6%, 2 or more races 3.2%
Our plan to address the problem will be to enhance our Community Response Initiative (CRI) with the goal of redirecting low-level individuals with MI or CMISA to appropriate service providers rather than the to the criminal justice system
Amount of Federal Funds Requested: $550,000
The City of Stamford, CT. is not a previous recipient of JMHCP grant funding